Holy Saturday is kind of a
weird day. Each day in Holy Week has a
significance tied to it. Palm Sunday we
celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday we recall the last supper and
Jesus’ prayer time in the Garden. Good
Friday, we remember his death and tomorrow on Easter we will celebrate his
resurrection. But today? Today we live
in this tension between what happened yesterday and the expectation of the Resurrection tomorrow,
but try to imagine with me that first Holy Saturday. It probably didn’t feel real Holy to the
disciples and friends and family of Jesus.
I'm sure all sorts of things
were going on in the outside world, the disciples freaking out - packing bags
and calling up relatives for a place to hang out a while until things cooled
off. Some were thinking about the preparations to Jesus’ body they were
going to have to make tomorrow. Some
were maybe reflecting on the last few years… Those things don't interest me
that much. My question is, what was Jesus
doing that day?
There is a pretty prevalent
thought that pretty much nothing
happened. Jesus was dead, laying in the tomb that day. It was the
Sabbath and he was "resting".
I guess that thought makes a kind of sense – even God the Father rested
after creating the world, surely Jesus deserved a rest after what he just went
through.
Funny thing, though... I
think back just a couple of weeks in our Gospel readings – when Jesus heals the
man born blind from birth. Do you
remember why the Pharisees were upset with Jesus? Was it because he healed someone?
No. It was because he healed him on the
Sabbath. And taking a closer look,
Jesus wasn't much of a Sabbath "rester" from what we see in the
gospels. In fact, he was frequently at work, healing people on the Sabbath.
- Matthew 12, Mark 3 and Luke 6 all tell of when
Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.
- In Mark 1 and Luke 4 he healed a man with an
unclean spirit in the synagogue.
- In Mark 6 he laid his hands on the sick and
healed them.
- In John 5 he heals the man at the pool at
Bathseda.
- In John 9 he heals the man born blind.
- In Luke 14 he heals a man with dropsy, asking
this question, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a
well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" (Luke
14:5)
When he was alive, Jesus was
very much at work on the Sabbath, and I think that Holy Saturday was no
exception. In fact I believe (and the early church teaches) he was doing
just what he alluded to. He was saving lives and rescuing people from a
pit.
 |
| "Come with me if you want to live" |
Like, hell hell?
What did he do there?
Did he suffer?
How did he leave it?
Many early church fathers
teach that he went to hell with this purpose in mind. That is, to rescue the souls trapped there.
But, they are divided on
which souls he went to save…
Some church fathers believe
that he went only to rescue those who would have followed him had he been
around when they lived. People like
Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Remember
those guys? Its kind of a shame that we only remember them these days by the
names given to them by their captors: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Some say Jesus rescued people like them and
Moses and Abraham and Noah and so on…
But many early church believe
that his mission was not so limited.
Clement of Alexandria says this:
If
indeed the Lord descended to Hades for no other purpose than to preach the good
news in his descent, then he preached either to all or to the Hebrews
alone. If then, it was to all, then all who
have believed will be saved, For God is not only the Lord of the Jews, but of
all men... So I think it is demonstrated that God, being good, and the Lord
powerful, saves with a righteousness and equality which extend to all that turn
to Him, whether here or elsewhere.[1]
Now, at this point, you may
be asking “what does scripture say about
it?”. The answer is, not much, but it’s
not silent either. There are a few
passages, but the most significant passage is in 1 Peter. Peter tells us that Christ also [died] once
for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he
went and [preached] to the spirits in prison” and this part, we just heard:
“For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that
though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit
the way God does.”
Peter seems pretty convinced
that Jesus preached to the dead, just as he had to the living, in order that
they might live in the spirit.
So, what does that mean for
hell? Did Jesus get everyone out? Did he leave it empty and since then it’s
just re-filled?
The Eastern Orthodox would
say that Jesus did not force anyone out.
Those who did not respond to his preaching - much like those who don’t
or didn’t respond to his teachings here on earth, would be allowed to stay
there. Revelation tells us that Jesus
holds the keys of Death and Hades and the Orthodox would say that because of
this, the Gates are still open. They
also do not limit this event to only those who died before Christ. They would say that this preaching extends to
all time for those who during their life on earth did not or could not know
Christ.
Thomas Aquinas and other Western
theologians consider the descent into hell a one-time event that was specific
and relevant to only those people who were there at that time. In fact, after he left, even the memory of
that event faded and had no lasting impression.
In this view, which still holds in most Western Churches today, hell is
still operating as it always has: a holding place for the unbaptized innocents,
punishment for the unrepentant sinner (and those who never accepted Christ)
and, for those who still hold to the idea of Purgatory, a place of atonement
for the repentant yet imperfect sinner.
Christ may have ‘taken a bite’ out of it when he took the Old Testament
faithful away, but those losses are nothing compared to the gains accrued
since.
Whether we accept a Western
or Eastern view of how hell still operates post-Descent, the one thing in
common with the majority opinion of both views is that people are still going there.
How they get there and what
happens then is another discussion, but as the Church, we should not think about
this subject as just an academic exercise.
There are real people all around us facing very real, possibly eternal,
consequences. Whatever stance we take on
this issue will affect the way that we treat others, the way we preach and how
we counsel. Ultimately, our goal is to
make disciples. And while we may still
have questions, there is one thing that we do know and do agree upon, that because
of what happened yesterday and what we will celebrate tomorrow, the way of
salvation has been opened to all. And
that – that is worth remembering this night.
Comments